Net income jumped to 18.5 trillion rupiah ($1.9 billion),
exceeding the 17.08 trillion rupiah median estimates of 29
analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. That’s the biggest profit
on record since 2000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Lending increased 23 percent from a year earlier, Bank Rakyat
President Director Sofyan Basir told reporters in Jakarta today.
The profit growth is the result of the bank strengthening its
focus on micro lending, it said in a statement.

“This is a positive surprise,” Agus Pramono, an analyst
at PT Indo Premier Securities in Jakarta said by telephone.
“Competition in micro financing is intensifying and Bank Rakyat
is pushing back.”

Boosting micro financing is helping the Jakarta-based
lender tap into Indonesia’s rising domestic consumption.
Southeast Asia’s biggest economy expanded 6.17 percent in the
three months ended Sept. 30 from a year earlier, holding above a
6 percent pace for an eighth quarter. Purchasing power will
continue to improve as growth accelerates, Basir said.